Page 351 - robinson-crusoe

rafts, and so landed just at my door. I was at first ready to
sink down with the surprise; for I saw my deliverance, in-
deed, visibly put into my hands, all things easy, and a large
ship just ready to carry me away whither I pleased to go. At
first, for some time, I was not able to answer him one word;
but as he had taken me in his arms I held fast by him, or I
should have fallen to the ground. He perceived the surprise,
and immediately pulled a bottle out of his pocket and gave
me a dram of cordial, which he had brought on purpose for
me. After I had drunk it, I sat down upon the ground; and
though it brought me to myself, yet it was a good while be-
fore I could speak a word to him. All this time the poor man
was in as great an ecstasy as I, only not under any surprise
as I was; and he said a thousand kind and tender things to
me, to compose and bring me to myself; but such was the
flood of joy in my breast, that it put all my spirits into confu-
sion: at last it broke out into tears, and in a little while after
I recovered my speech; I then took my turn, and embraced
him as my deliverer, and we rejoiced together. I told him I
looked upon him as a man sent by Heaven to deliver me,
and that the whole transaction seemed to be a chain of won-
ders; that such things as these were the testimonies we had
of a secret hand of Providence governing the world, and an
evidence that the eye of an infinite Power could search into
the remotest corner of the world, and send help to the mis-
erable whenever He pleased. I forgot not to lift up my heart
in thankfulness to Heaven; and what heart could forbear to
bless Him, who had not only in a miraculous manner pro-
vided for me in such a wilderness, and in such a desolate

0 Robinson Crusoe